Thursday, October 11, 2012

Its been a
while. Since I watched a sci-fi film. Worth its salt. Directed by Matt Reeves,
Cloverfield blew my away. You might think it was not that great, but then again
I am a sucker for all movies sci-fi. The movie is typical in many ways, and yet
atypical in others.

Though the
narration had the protagonist, Rob and his group of friends, I prefer to refer
to the hand held camera as the narrator. Apart from screening bits of Rob &
Beth’s day out in Coney Island, the way the filming has been done has lent a
character to it. The movie seemed mundane to begin with. A farewell party, and
the irritating cameraman ‘Hud’. But with the earthquake, the entire movie took
a turn.

As I
mentioned earlier, some of the aspects that I felt were typicalwas the ‘Damsel in Distress syndrome’. It
accounts for the ever heartbreaking separation of lovers or could-be lovers. And
then the little group of friends had to brave the onslaught of the creature,
its little ones and move in the opposite direction. Not to mention the Brooklyn
Bridge scene which took place somewhere near the start instead of being the
climax. Filmmakers and script writers love to tear down the largest of large
infrastructure, like kids ramming their cars over the Lego building tops. Some
fascination.

Some bits
left me stunned, looking for an explanation. They managed to climb 57+ levels, barged
through the floor without resting for a bit?! How could that be? Or the fact
that, (as my co-watcher pointed out), how could Beth run and hop around despite
having been impaled by the construction rod? Beats me. Her guess was as good as
mine.

But the
bits that I really liked, was the monster in itself. I don’t know what they
called it, but its features set it apart from all the humongous monsters we
have seen earlier. The smaller parasites that fell off its body was brilliant. More
like the Alien concept. The underground scene was exciting, since it had me
flapping at them and urging them to ‘run faster’. I always do that. Makes me
feel like I’m ‘there’. However, when Marlena was bitten, and the army personnel
grabbed her away and shot her, I wondered why. What would have happened
otherwise. This was a loophole that they had left gaping at the audience. In
Alien or even a certain spider film, the human bodies were the bearers of the
alien larvae. But what happened here? They should have put it.

Overall, a
wonderful film to watch, especially when there is a paucity of films that match
‘Godzilla and Jurassic Park’.